“Nobody ever said being a parent is easy. But do politicians have to make it harder? Here I’ve been all these years, teaching my three children that you can’t get something for nothing. If you want something, you have to work for it. Now along comes the Senate to debate an immigration bill that would undermine that very principle. It’s a simple question of mathematics. The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector—probably the most widely quoted expert in the country on immigration—has crunched the numbers and figured out the average illegal immigrant family receives about $30,000 annually in government benefits. But that same family pays only $9,000 in taxes. You don’t need a calculator to see that leaves a shortfall of $21,000. As Rector puts it, that’s like having the taxpayers buy every illegal immigrant family a brand-new Mustang convertible every year! And by taxpayers, of course, I mean you and me. And your neighbors. And your friends. I’m talking about everybody who clings to the notion of fair play and hard work—who thinks the American Dream is something you strive to earn, not something you passively accept, as if it were a government handout.”

—Rebecca Hagelin